Gloverly Cupcakes

Nine years  ago I made Tom a birthday cake. It was the first baking I did while I was at university and the first time I’d baked anything for him. I had to go out to buy cake tins – I even had to call my mum to ask for her standard chocolate cake recipe. However, it was a fairly simple cake – an 8 inch round chocolate cake, sandwiched together with chocolate buttercream and decorated with Smarties. Since then, I’ve always tried to make Tom a cake on his birthday – I even sent him gingerbread when he was in Afghanistan – and each year I try to make something different and better than the previous year.

Last year I made him a Minion.

Given Tom is a doctor and in the army, there are plenty of options for coming up with a themed cake. He’s had an army-related cake before (a tank!) but never a doctor-related cake so this year I decided it had to be something medical. And the first idea I came up with was a cake that looked like Operation, the board game. I thought it would be fairly simple to make –  a rectangular cake with some decorations on, but it probably took longer than the minion did!

Here’s how I made it:

1. While I was waiting for the buttercream to set on the cake I cut the man out of flesh coloured icing and  cut out the holes for his “bones”. I used a blunt knife to make the markings between his legs, arms etc . I used a ball tool/other modelling tools to make the indentations for his ears, eyes, mouth and belly button.
2. I stuck a large red sugar ball on for his nose and some small bits of white and grey icing for his eyes.
3. I cut out a 6″x12″ rectangle of yellow icing and placed it on top of the cake, followed by the man.
4. Using a small paintbrush and some red food colouring I painted the inside of each of the holes and his lips. I used black food colouring to paint in the inside of his mouth.
5. I rolled out some grey icing very thinly and cut out narrow strips which I stuck round the edge of each of the holes on his body.  I used the rest of the grey icing to create the end of the tweezers.
6. I rolled out some brown icing and cut out a hair shape and stuck it in place. I then used a wheel tool to make some lines to look like hair. I rolled two tiny bits of brown icing into eyebrow shapes and stuck them in place.
7. I used a very fine paintbrush and some black food colouring to write the names of the bones etc.
8. I rolled out a lot of red fondant icing and covered a 16” board. I then cut out strips to cover each side of the cake. I cut out some thin strips to go over the top edges of the cake where the red and yellow icing met.
9. I rolled a long thin string of red icing  and kept one end of it fat. Using a ball tool, I created a large indent in the fat end of the string and placed the tweezers into it.. I then placed the tweezers onto the cake and draped the wire round the body.
10. I cut out a couple of red “flashes” to stick on next to the wire to give the impression that it was buzzing.
11. I  placed the cake onto the board and using the left over flesh coloured icing I cut out “Happy birthday Tom” and stuck them to the board.
12. I used white icing to make the “bones” and placed them next to or in the holes.

If I were to make it again I would put the yellow icing on top of the cake first so that the man could go straight on the cake as soon as it  had been cut out – he started drying out and therefore cracking when I tried to move him. I would also probably do the writing on the cake in capitals.

I might have baked a little bit too much cake – I ended up with double the amount I needed! I used the BBC Good Food chocolate wedding cake recipe – it’s my favourite when making a large chocolate cake. It’s meant to fill a 12” round cake tin, so I decided to put it in a 12” square tin (with a divider down the middle to help it bake quicker) thinking that it wouldn’t be as deep as the 12” round so I’d be able to cut the top off each side and then sandwich them together on top of each other. However, each side rose so well that I ended up being able to cut 3 layers out of each one, even after I’d cut the tops off. So I now have another 6”x12” chocolate cake to decorate. Time to get back in the kitchen….